Read time: 4 min.

My recent trip to Columbia City for a picnic basket yielded pictures of a couple of old schoolhouses and a flowing well, but that’s not all I found. Now home to Hollenbaugh Well Drilling, the old Washington Center Elementary School still stands in the center of, you guessed it, Whitley County’s Washington Township. Modern schools usually don’t capture my imagination, but something about this one tugged at me. I had to dig deeper!

A school has stood at the northeast corner of South Washington Road and County Road 800-South in Whitley County since at least 1876, when one sat plopped on Chavey family land¹. A single-story brick building with two classrooms and an open belfry was completed in 1901. One room served students from first grade through eighth, while the other was an early high school for students in grades nine and ten. Eleventh grade was added in 1906, and twelfth came the following year². 

A two-story addition with two basement classrooms, two classes, and a study hall on the first floor -along with a second-story auditorium and principal’s office- was authorized in 1917³. Before too long, Washington Township’s rural schools began to consolidate into the structure. The first were the District 3: Metz and District 6: Jackson schools, followed by the District 8: Tracy and District 9: Union buildings. A frame gymnasium was completed in 1924. The rest of the area’s schools consolidated into Washington Center by 1928 or so⁴. 

Eventually, Washington Township’s high school students were sent to continue their studies in Columbia City⁵. A new elementary -a modern, single-story structure with eight classrooms, a cafeteria, and a multipurpose room⁶– was dedicated in 1963⁷. At first, the old frame gymnasium appears to have been retained as a kitchen⁸. Unfortunately, it was demolished long ago. 

The modern Washington Center Elementary School was designed by Fort Wayne architects A.M. Strauss and Associates and built by D&C Construction of South Whitley. Its walls were built of warm, gray brick, while trim below the building’s windows and in its vertical headers, notably, was darker⁹. 

I don’t know exactly when Washington Center Elementary closed, but the building was sold to Hollenbaugh Properties in 2006¹⁰. The well-drilling firm opened the school’s old gymnasium up into four large vehicle bays, but what the rest of the old school is used for is unclear. The Washington Township Fire Department sits just north, while the old Washington Center Methodist Church stands just south. 

Washington Center Elementary has been out of service for at least twenty years, but its story still lingers. What started as a modest township school grew into a community hub! Today, there’s still a “there” there in Washington Center, since it still features the church, the fire brigade, and the well-drilling headquarters. The school isn’t the oldest I’ve ever featured, but it still feels like a landmark that tells the story of generations that passed through its doors. 

Sources Cited
1 Indiana Counties 1876 (1876). Baskin, Forster, and Company [Chicago]. Map. 
2 Washington Center School Will Be Abandoned, New Building Open Soon (1962, December 8). The Columbia City Commercial-Mail. Pp. 1.-3. 
3 (See footnote 2). 
4 (See footnote 2). 
5 (See footnote 2).
6 Architect’s Sketch Of New Washington Center School Pictured (1962, April 14). The COLUMBIA CITY Commercial Mail. p. 1. 
7 Ways Of Education Change, Aims Basic Says Washington Center Dedication Speaker (1963, January 28). The Columbia City Commercial-Mail. p. 1. 
8 (See footnote 2). 
9 (See footnote 6). 
10 Whitley County Office of Information & GIS Services. (2025). Columbia City. Parcel ID: 92-09-15-000-303.901-013. Map.